Former NBA player Stephen Jackson came to the defense of ESPN’s Rachel Nichols, after she made comments about her colleague Maria Taylor, calling it a “diversity” hire when the network gave her the hosting job of “NBA Countdown” during the 2020 NBA Finals inside the Orlando, Florida, bubble.
The story came out after The New York Times on Sunday made public a leaked audio recording of Nichols, who failed to turn off her video camera following a live broadcast on the network.
Jackson has made several appearances on Nichols’ ESPN show, “The Jump,” and defended her comments on the situation and even blamed the network for the issue after they gave Taylor “a sympathy job” amid the Black Lives Matter movement.
“We all ramble. We say things when we are frustrated. And you know, Rachel [Nichols] did deserve that job. It’s just plain and simple. I talked to Rachel and I know a lot of things she was saying out of frustration because ESPN put her in a bad position,” Jackson said during a rant on Instagram. “And they even put Maria [Taylor] in a position trying to give her a sympathy job.”
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